Biography

A highly unusual development even by the esoteric standards of Finlands popular music industry, Apocalyptica was formed by four classically trained cellists from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki who wished to interpret heavy metal classics. Their 1996 debut album consisted entirely of Metallica songs - and was not, apparently, intended as a joke. Instead, the quartet attempted to recreate the urgency and bombast of such Metallica standards as Enter Sandman and Master Of Puppets by rearranging them for cello. The band, founded by Eicca Toppinen (5 August 1975, Vantaa, Finland), Max Lilja (b. 1975, Finland), Antero Manninen (b. 19 January 1973, Tampere, Finland) and Paavo Lötjönen, were drawn together because of what Toppinen described as our love of metal. We wanted to see how metal would work classically, and I especially wanted to try Metallica songs, as theyve been a favourite of mine for more than 10...